In 25 years since 9/11, memory has melded with beauty in New York’s cityscape
In photos

Ground Zero in Year 25

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, New York’s evolving cityscape has blended memory with beauty

Photography by Mario Tama and Spencer PlattGetty Images
The Globe and Mail
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Mario Tama/Getty Images
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In 2001, New Yorkers would have seen two towers here – until passenger jets, hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists, toppled them both. The Sept. 11 attacks at the World Trade Center killed 2,753 people. More than 200 others died in an attack on the Pentagon and a plane crash in rural Pennsylvania. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Since 9/11, motorcyclists have made an annual pilgrimage to the three crash sites. This year, Michael Precinsky was among them at the memorial site in Manhattan. Its opening 10 years ago was one of many architectural changes that turned this place of tragedy into a civic hub for all New Yorkers. Mario Tama/Getty Images
The Oculus, designed by Santiago Calatrava and opened in 2016, replaced a train station destroyed by the Twin Towers’ collapse. Thousands commute through it each day to the financial district. Mario Tama/Getty Images
The WTC Cortlandt subway station, partly caved in on 9/11, is now home to a mosaic by artist Ann Hamilton. It features passages from the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Mario Tama/Getty Images
Another underground survivor of 2001 is the ‘slurry wall,’ now part of the 9/11 museum. The builders of the original World Trade Center erected the concrete barrier in the 1960s to keep river water at bay while they excavated down to the bedrock. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Santiago Calatrava also designed the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church on Liberty Street, after the original was crushed. It reopened four years ago as a national shrine, welcoming people of all faiths. Mario Tama/Getty Images
Down the street is FDNY Ten House, whose firefighters were the first to respond on 9/11. Its memorial freezes the moment when the South Tower erupted in flames and honours six firefighters who died. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
After 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis, New York rebounded by building a new generation of skyscrapers. One World Trade Center is the tallest: The tip of its spire is 1,776 feet up. Mario Tama/Getty Images
The Edge NYC sky deck and the tower beneath it, 30 Hudson Yards, are another product of the 2010s construction boom. One World Trade Center stands out in the view from here. Mario Tama/Getty Images
Across the Hudson River in Jersey City is Empty Sky, a 9/11 memorial designed by Jessica Jamroz and Frederic Schwartz. Its steel walls create a halo effect at certain times of day. Mario Tama/Getty Images
Some of this year’s 9/11 remembrances have already taken place. On Aug. 30, the NYPD Emerald Society organized a memorial mass in the Woodlawn section of the Bronx, an Irish neighbourhood home to hundreds of first responders. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
On Sept. 11, St. Paul’s Chapel will ring its Bell of Hope at 8:46 a.m., when the first plane hit the North Tower 25 years earlier. The church, close to the crash site but not damaged, was a refuge for rescue workers. The bell was a gift to New York from the City of London. Mario Tama/Getty Images
New Yorkers experience Sept. 11 milestones in varied and personal ways, whether they are too young to remember 2001 or fought in the wars that followed it. No matter who they are, when the remembrances are over, they will step into the same cityscape, transformed forever by what happened 25 years ago. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Where we were on 9/11: More from The Globe

Journalist Omar Mouallem was a teen in Alberta when the World Trade Center attacks, and the Islamophobic rhetoric that followed them, reshaped the lives of young Muslims. He reflected on those years in his 2021 book Praying to the West: How Muslims Shaped the Americas, which he spoke about with The Decibel on the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Subscribe for more episodes.


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